Sorting devices for gaming chips have been known for a long time. GB 2061490 discloses a device that distributes gaming chips that are collected by a transport chain and passed by a feature recognition system, from the chain into appropriate removal units. A disadvantage of this solution is the high space requirement for the chain. A further disadvantage is the high manufacturing costs, because the chain comprises many individual members, each of these members in addition being provided with a spring-loaded pin for distributing gaming chips.
GB 2254419 describes a device in which the gaming chips are first collected by a transport disc and then transferred to a chain, recognized there, and distributed to a removal unit. This arrangement requires less space than the aforementioned device. Nevertheless, it uses resilient elements to retain individual gaming chips, transferred from the transport disc to the chain, in the chain itself. These resilient elements precisely, however, accept only gaming chips with a largely uniform diameter, because gaming chips with a diameter greater than the nominal diameter can be transferred to the chain only at a high load or not at all; gaming chips with a diameter smaller than the nominal diameter cannot be reliably retained and fall out of the chains on the way to distribution to the removal units. The additional chain leads to additional manufacturing costs.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,381,294 discloses a chip-sorting device in which the conveyance of the chips is effected by a chain. This transport means is very expensive to maintain, however.